MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall was very outspoken about the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal Monday to hear a constitutional challenge of a law effectively prohibiting certain Californians from conceal carry of firearms outside of their homes.

“It is patently absurd to believe that the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms is confined to the four walls of their places of residence, yet that is effectively the view that the Supreme Court endorsed today in its decision to let stand a California federal court decision upholding a ban of the carry of firearms in public in San Diego County,” said Attorney General Steve Marshall.

In his dissenting view, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas cited an amicus brief filed by Alabama on behalf of 25 other states in support of the Second Amendment in the case Edward Peruta v State of California. “Even if other members of the Court do not agree that the Second Amendment likely protects a right to public carry,” he wrote, “the time has come for the Court to answer this important question definitively. Twenty-six States have asked us to resolve the question presented, see Brief for Alabama et al. as Amici Curiae, and the lower courts have fully vetted the issue.”

On February 16, 2017, Alabama and 25 other states argued that the U.S. Supreme Court should grant certiorari, an order by which a higher court reviews a decision of a lower court, on the question of whether the fundamental right to bear arms for self-defense extends beyond the home.

The brief asserted, “The San Diego County sheriff’s licensing scheme effectively bans the core right to bear arms for ordinary, law-abiding citizens and, consequently violates the Second Amendment. The experience of amici States demonstrates that the restrictions on bearing arms in San Diego County cannot withstand any level of scrutiny. Although the amici States share the same compelling interests in protecting the health and safety of their citizens, they have been able to do so without curtailing the fundamental right of their citizens to bear arms.”